Psalms:
Bk 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
Bk 2: 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
Bk 3: 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
Bk 4: 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106
Bk 5: 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119a 119b 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132
133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150
Additional Psalms: 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 Samuel Chronicles
Essays: Intro - Music - Form & Language
Descriptor and dedication - need to compare this with the two previous, because this seems to be a third variant on the Lied-Libretto-Choral genres.
As seems to be becoming "per normal", KJ inserts verse 1, and adjusts its verse-numbering accordingly.
The Septuagint seems to think this is for "the second day of the week", which is Monday in the Yehudit calendar. Deutera sabbatou: "the second day towards the Sabbath", which is how the Jewish week gets counted. If that is correct, can we find confirmation of it within the text?
The full list of Psalms for the Day in today's liturgy is
48:1 SHIR MIZMOR LIVNEY KORACH
KJ (King James translation): (A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah.) Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
BN (BibleNet translation): A song with musical accompaniment, for the Beney Korach.
SHIR MIZMOR: KJ's translation adds an "and", but I think erroneously: SHIR = libretto (even "song-sheet" or "word sheet"); MIZMOR = for accompaniment by the Beney Korach, which is the name of the choir.
48:2 GADOL YHVH U MEHULAL ME'OD BE IR ELOHEYNU HAR KADSHO
KJ (48:1): Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
BN: YHVH is great, and highly to be praised, in the city of our gods, on his holy mountain.
HAR KADSHO: Which holy mountain? The answer will denote the date. Is this Mosaic, from the desert, and therefore Chorev? No - there is nothing in the text to indicate that Psalms were written at that time. Songs, yes (Exodus 15, Deuteronomy 32), but not Psalms. Yeru-Shala'im then, and the hill is Mor-Yah? Only if we are Solomonic, or later - the hill only became sacred to YHVH, who is named as the deity here, from that time. And I ask, not just for this, but because I am seeking possible evidence of continuity in the plot of Book Two, as well as the question posed by the Septuagint, above. The Psalms that opened this book appear to have been linked with Mount Chermon; which would make YHVH a late addition to a Psalm adopted from either the Kena'anim or the Phoinikim.
YEPHEH NOPH: A NOPH is either the landscape itself, or the process of gazing at it.
48:5 KI HINEH HA MELACHIM NO'ADU AVRU YACHDAV
KJ (48:4): For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.
BN: For, behold, the kings gathered together, and passed in state together.
Which kings? Is my rendition acceptable? MELECH doesn't have to mean "king" anyway - from the Hiph'il form of the root HALACH, it can be any "leader". And if it doesn't mean this, what does it mean? If this is indeed a plot-continuation of the opening of Book Two, then we saw all these "nobles", gathered for the wedding ceremony.
48:6 HEMAH RA'U TAMAHU NIVHALU NECHPAZU
KJ (48:5): They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.
BN: They saw it, marvelled, were awe-stuck by it, stood shaking in amazement.
48:8 BE RU'ACH KADIM TESHABER ANIYOT TARSHISH
KJ (48:7): Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.
BN: With the east wind you wreck the ships of Tarshish.
Two options for Tarshish, one Tartessus in Spain, the other Tarsus in Turkey; one associated with Yonah, the other with St Paul. More detail at the link.
DIMIYNU: This has nothing to do with "thought" but is all about "action". DOMEH means "likeness", as in Genesis 1:26. And the whole point of Man being created in the "likeness" of the deity, is not that the deity looks like a human being, but that a) all things come from the same essence, the same molecular source; and b) in Jewish law anyway, that we need to create a socio-political structure which parallels on Earth the patterns of the heavens: so a king to surrogate the sun-god and his queen for the moon; so the twelve tribes for the twelve constellations; so the Temple as a mirror of his (metaphorical) heavenly palace; so, also, the Attributes of the Deity, which need to be the Table of Values employed by human beings. So other nations make their likenesses in stone or gold or ivory; the Beney Yisra-El are expected to make theirs through communal action.
HEYCHAL: Sometimes KJ translates it as "palace", sometimes as "temple", and these are obviously not the same, except metaphorically. In this Psalm it is more important to make the distinction clearly, because we already have ARMENOTEYHA for "palaces" (verse 4, and again in verse 14). And if it does mean "Temple", and we are clearly hearing about Yeru-Shala'im, then this must belong to the post-Davidic era.
So we can say that this is not a continuation of the previous series of Psalms, but a new subject: a Psalm to the glory that is Mount Tsi'on, and the Temple. Perhaps even a Psalm written especially for the dedication of the Temple.
48:11 KE SHIMCHA ELOHIM KEN TEHILAT'CHA AL KATSVEY ERETS TSEDEK MAL'AH YEMIYNECHA
KJ (48:10): According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.
BN: As is your name, Elohim, so is your praise to the very ends of the Earth. {N} Your right hand is full of righteousness.
ELOHIM: I am confusing you, I know, by sometimes translating Elohim as "gods", and sometimes leaving it in the Yehudit as "Elohim". The meaning is unaffected - Elohim is a multiple plural, which uses the singular verb as compound nouns always do; Yehudit has many such words, but there is no equivalent in English. My variations are purely a matter of tone and rhythm within the phrasing of the verse.
YEMIYNECHA: The right hand is always metaphorical, as all things divine are always metaphorical in the Tanach. The Elohim are the gods, their "right-hand man" on Earth is the priest-king, the Mashiyach, the Bin-Yamin.
48:12 YISMACH HAR TSI'ON TAGELNAH BENOT YEHUDAH LEMA'AN MISHPATEYCHA
KJ (48:11): Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.
BN: Let Mount Tsi'on be glad, let the daughters of Yehudah rejoice, on account of your judgments.
Look carefully at the illustration. Yeru-Shala'im is located in the tribal area of Bin-Yamin, not that of Yehudah. From the time of its building, by King Shelomoh (Solomon), around 950 BCE, until the break-up of Yisra-El into a northern and a southern kingdom after the civil war between Yerav-Am (Jeroboam) and Rechav-Am (Rehoboam), any national reference would have been to the Benot Yisra-El, and a reference to Benot Yehudah would have been politically divisive, and deeply upsetting to the tribe of Bin-Yamin. And even after the civil war, Yeru-Shala'im regarded itself as the central shrine of all Yisra-El, so really the same would apply until the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar in 720 BCE. But for certain, this statement could not have been made in the Davidic or Solomonic eras. So we can date the Psalm still more precisely.
Day One (Sunday) Psalm 24
Day Two (Monday) Psalm 14 (or 48 - see my notes at Psalm 82)
Day Three (Tuesday) Psalm 82
Day Four (Wednesday) Psalm 94:1-95:3
Day Five (Thursday) Psalm 81
Day Six (Friday) Psalm 93
Day Seven (Saturday) Psalm 92
48:1 SHIR MIZMOR LIVNEY KORACH
שִׁיר מִזְמוֹר לִבְנֵי קֹרַח
KJ (King James translation): (A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah.) Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
BN (BibleNet translation): A song with musical accompaniment, for the Beney Korach.
SHIR MIZMOR: KJ's translation adds an "and", but I think erroneously: SHIR = libretto (even "song-sheet" or "word sheet"); MIZMOR = for accompaniment by the Beney Korach, which is the name of the choir.
48:2 GADOL YHVH U MEHULAL ME'OD BE IR ELOHEYNU HAR KADSHO
גָּדוֹל יְהוָה וּמְהֻלָּל מְאֹד בְּעִיר אֱלֹהֵינוּ הַר קָדְשׁוֹ
KJ (48:1): Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
BN: YHVH is great, and highly to be praised, in the city of our gods, on his holy mountain.
HAR KADSHO: Which holy mountain? The answer will denote the date. Is this Mosaic, from the desert, and therefore Chorev? No - there is nothing in the text to indicate that Psalms were written at that time. Songs, yes (Exodus 15, Deuteronomy 32), but not Psalms. Yeru-Shala'im then, and the hill is Mor-Yah? Only if we are Solomonic, or later - the hill only became sacred to YHVH, who is named as the deity here, from that time. And I ask, not just for this, but because I am seeking possible evidence of continuity in the plot of Book Two, as well as the question posed by the Septuagint, above. The Psalms that opened this book appear to have been linked with Mount Chermon; which would make YHVH a late addition to a Psalm adopted from either the Kena'anim or the Phoinikim.
The answer is in fact in the very next verse. (But we need to have asked, precisely because of those questions: each piece of text that does or does not relate to another, also has impact on our understanding of the other.)
48:3 YEPHEH NOPH MESOS KOL HA ARETS HAR TSI'ON YARKETEY TSAPHON KIRYAT MELECH RAV
KJ (48:2): Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
BN: Mount Tsi'on, the city of the great king, has simply the best views on the entire planet; {N} especially the northern vista.
48:3 YEPHEH NOPH MESOS KOL HA ARETS HAR TSI'ON YARKETEY TSAPHON KIRYAT MELECH RAV
יְפֵה נוֹף מְשׂוֹשׂ כָּל הָאָרֶץ הַר צִיּוֹן יַרְכְּתֵי צָפוֹן קִרְיַת מֶלֶךְ רָב
KJ (48:2): Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
BN: Mount Tsi'on, the city of the great king, has simply the best views on the entire planet; {N} especially the northern vista.
YEPHEH NOPH: A NOPH is either the landscape itself, or the process of gazing at it.
ARETS: Two options here, with a lower case e or an upper case E. The former would just be the land of Yisra-El, the latter the entire planet.
MESOS: Gesenius confirms KJ, and references other usages, mostly in Yesha-Yah (24:11, 65:18 et al); but actually Isaiah 32:14 uses MESOS to mean the very opposite: desolate.
TSAPHON: The north, of course, is the one side where the sun is never seen; it passes from east to west by way of the south, so the north is the netherworld, the land of death, and no coincidence therefore that this is where, according to Ezekiel 8:14, the women went to wail for Tammuz, the Lord of the Underworld, born in the manger, which is to say "on the threshing-floor" at his nearby shrine, Beit Lechem Ephratah, Bethlehem in modern parlance, "the shrine of the corn-god of the river Euphrates". "The beloved son" as he was also known - in Yehudit Yedid-Yah, which abbreviates to David.
MESOS: Gesenius confirms KJ, and references other usages, mostly in Yesha-Yah (24:11, 65:18 et al); but actually Isaiah 32:14 uses MESOS to mean the very opposite: desolate.
TSAPHON: The north, of course, is the one side where the sun is never seen; it passes from east to west by way of the south, so the north is the netherworld, the land of death, and no coincidence therefore that this is where, according to Ezekiel 8:14, the women went to wail for Tammuz, the Lord of the Underworld, born in the manger, which is to say "on the threshing-floor" at his nearby shrine, Beit Lechem Ephratah, Bethlehem in modern parlance, "the shrine of the corn-god of the river Euphrates". "The beloved son" as he was also known - in Yehudit Yedid-Yah, which abbreviates to David.
So the statement in this verse is not simply a PR placement by the Yisra-Eli Tourist Board, but a retort to those who might argue, theologically, that the sun-god has no power in the northern sky, because his territory is exclusively east to west via the southern route (which of course is the one that both Mosheh and David took in their journeys towards earthly deification).
48:4 ELOHIM BE ARMENOTEYHA NOD'A LE MISGAV
KJ (48:3): God is known in her palaces for a refuge.
BN: Elohim has made it known in her palaces that he is her stronghold.
ARMENOTEYHA: Feminine, and the phrasing makes it sound like the deity is feminine; but no, it is a continuation of the previous verse, and it is the city which is feminine.
But even if our answer is now confirmed by the text as Mount Tsi'on, and our date Solomonic or later, we can also state with confidence that it must be First Temple, or only the very earliest period of the Second Temple, before the Hasmonean epoch - because, at that time, YHVH completed his take-over of autocratic authority, and the Elohim were removed. Here, they are still equal rulers.
48:4 ELOHIM BE ARMENOTEYHA NOD'A LE MISGAV
אֱלֹהִים בְּאַרְמְנוֹתֶיהָ נוֹדַע לְמִשְׂגָּב
KJ (48:3): God is known in her palaces for a refuge.
BN: Elohim has made it known in her palaces that he is her stronghold.
ARMENOTEYHA: Feminine, and the phrasing makes it sound like the deity is feminine; but no, it is a continuation of the previous verse, and it is the city which is feminine.
But even if our answer is now confirmed by the text as Mount Tsi'on, and our date Solomonic or later, we can also state with confidence that it must be First Temple, or only the very earliest period of the Second Temple, before the Hasmonean epoch - because, at that time, YHVH completed his take-over of autocratic authority, and the Elohim were removed. Here, they are still equal rulers.
48:5 KI HINEH HA MELACHIM NO'ADU AVRU YACHDAV
כִּי הִנֵּה הַמְּלָכִים נוֹעֲדוּ עָבְרוּ יַחְדָּו
KJ (48:4): For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.
BN: For, behold, the kings gathered together, and passed in state together.
Which kings? Is my rendition acceptable? MELECH doesn't have to mean "king" anyway - from the Hiph'il form of the root HALACH, it can be any "leader". And if it doesn't mean this, what does it mean? If this is indeed a plot-continuation of the opening of Book Two, then we saw all these "nobles", gathered for the wedding ceremony.
48:6 HEMAH RA'U TAMAHU NIVHALU NECHPAZU
הֵמָּה רָאוּ כֵּן תָּמָהוּ נִבְהֲלוּ נֶחְפָּזוּ
KJ (48:5): They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.
BN: They saw it, marvelled, were awe-stuck by it, stood shaking in amazement.
Can't you just hear this being sung? In Yehudit anyway, all those long "oo" endings, and the crescendo of syllables and strong consonants; you can't hear it at all in most English renditions.
NECHPAZU: All positives until this. But is it actually negative? See the link. The root gives a sense of being made to physically tremble, and that usually does mean fear or panic, and therefore insinuates running away. But I think here it has to be read positively.
NECHPAZU: All positives until this. But is it actually negative? See the link. The root gives a sense of being made to physically tremble, and that usually does mean fear or panic, and therefore insinuates running away. But I think here it has to be read positively.
Note the absence of conjunctions in the Yehudit.
48:7 RE'ADAH ACHAZATAM SHAM CHIYL KA YOLEDAH
KJ (48:6): Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
BN: Trembling took hold of them there, pangs, like a woman in labour.
Internal rhyme this time. RE'ADAH at the beginning with YOLEDAH at the end; ACHAZATAM... SHAM
RE'ADAH: As with NECHPAZU, above, so with this. This is epidermal spasm, not bed-wetting.
48:7 RE'ADAH ACHAZATAM SHAM CHIYL KA YOLEDAH
רְעָדָה אֲחָזָתַם שָׁם חִיל כַּיּוֹלֵדָה
KJ (48:6): Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
BN: Trembling took hold of them there, pangs, like a woman in labour.
Internal rhyme this time. RE'ADAH at the beginning with YOLEDAH at the end; ACHAZATAM... SHAM
RE'ADAH: As with NECHPAZU, above, so with this. This is epidermal spasm, not bed-wetting.
48:8 BE RU'ACH KADIM TESHABER ANIYOT TARSHISH
בְּרוּחַ קָדִים תְּשַׁבֵּר אֳנִיּוֹת תַּרְשִׁישׁ
KJ (48:7): Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.
BN: With the east wind you wreck the ships of Tarshish.
Two options for Tarshish, one Tartessus in Spain, the other Tarsus in Turkey; one associated with Yonah, the other with St Paul. More detail at the link.
But whichever it is: why is it here? An equivalent Psalm, for a coronation or wedding at Westminster Abbey, might well speak of the ships of Portsmouth or Southampton, of Woolwich Dock or King Henry's on the Isle of Dogs - but would it describe the... hmmm, wait a moment, might it describe, in 1589, the ships of La Coruña and Cadiz, or, in 1806, the ships of Le Havre de Grace? It might. But it would have a very precise meaning if it did, for which the appropriate adjective would be "triumphalist". But the Beney Yisra-El were never a nation that went to sea; not one single sea-battle, not so much as the description of a fishing-boat, in the entire Tanach - save Yonah, of course, whose boat was heading for Tarshish when the east wind struck it...
48:9 KA ASHER SHAM'ANU KEN RA'INU BE IR YHVH TSEVA'OT BE IR ELOHEYNU ELOHIM YECHONENEHA AD OLAM (SELAH)
KJ (48:8): As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah.
BN: As we have heard, so we have seen. {N} In the city of YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, in the city of our gods. {N} May the gods secure it for ever. (Selah)
48:10 DIMIYNU ELOHIM CHASDECHA BE KEREV HEYCHALECHA
KJ (48:9): We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.
BN: We have made, you gods, a likeness of your lovingkindness, at the heart of your Temple.
48:9 KA ASHER SHAM'ANU KEN RA'INU BE IR YHVH TSEVA'OT BE IR ELOHEYNU ELOHIM YECHONENEHA AD OLAM (SELAH)
כַּאֲשֶׁר שָׁמַעְנוּ כֵּן רָאִינוּ בְּעִיר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת בְּעִיר אֱלֹהֵינוּ אֱלֹהִים יְכוֹנְנֶהָ עַד עוֹלָם סֶלָה
KJ (48:8): As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah.
BN: As we have heard, so we have seen. {N} In the city of YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, in the city of our gods. {N} May the gods secure it for ever. (Selah)
48:10 DIMIYNU ELOHIM CHASDECHA BE KEREV HEYCHALECHA
דִּמִּינוּ אֱלֹהִים חַסְדֶּךָ בְּקֶרֶב הֵיכָלֶךָ
KJ (48:9): We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.
BN: We have made, you gods, a likeness of your lovingkindness, at the heart of your Temple.
DIMIYNU: This has nothing to do with "thought" but is all about "action". DOMEH means "likeness", as in Genesis 1:26. And the whole point of Man being created in the "likeness" of the deity, is not that the deity looks like a human being, but that a) all things come from the same essence, the same molecular source; and b) in Jewish law anyway, that we need to create a socio-political structure which parallels on Earth the patterns of the heavens: so a king to surrogate the sun-god and his queen for the moon; so the twelve tribes for the twelve constellations; so the Temple as a mirror of his (metaphorical) heavenly palace; so, also, the Attributes of the Deity, which need to be the Table of Values employed by human beings. So other nations make their likenesses in stone or gold or ivory; the Beney Yisra-El are expected to make theirs through communal action.
HEYCHAL: Sometimes KJ translates it as "palace", sometimes as "temple", and these are obviously not the same, except metaphorically. In this Psalm it is more important to make the distinction clearly, because we already have ARMENOTEYHA for "palaces" (verse 4, and again in verse 14). And if it does mean "Temple", and we are clearly hearing about Yeru-Shala'im, then this must belong to the post-Davidic era.
So we can say that this is not a continuation of the previous series of Psalms, but a new subject: a Psalm to the glory that is Mount Tsi'on, and the Temple. Perhaps even a Psalm written especially for the dedication of the Temple.
48:11 KE SHIMCHA ELOHIM KEN TEHILAT'CHA AL KATSVEY ERETS TSEDEK MAL'AH YEMIYNECHA
כְּשִׁמְךָ אֱלֹהִים כֵּן תְּהִלָּתְךָ עַל קַצְוֵי אֶרֶץ צֶדֶק מָלְאָה יְמִינֶךָ
KJ (48:10): According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.
BN: As is your name, Elohim, so is your praise to the very ends of the Earth. {N} Your right hand is full of righteousness.
ELOHIM: I am confusing you, I know, by sometimes translating Elohim as "gods", and sometimes leaving it in the Yehudit as "Elohim". The meaning is unaffected - Elohim is a multiple plural, which uses the singular verb as compound nouns always do; Yehudit has many such words, but there is no equivalent in English. My variations are purely a matter of tone and rhythm within the phrasing of the verse.
YEMIYNECHA: The right hand is always metaphorical, as all things divine are always metaphorical in the Tanach. The Elohim are the gods, their "right-hand man" on Earth is the priest-king, the Mashiyach, the Bin-Yamin.
48:12 YISMACH HAR TSI'ON TAGELNAH BENOT YEHUDAH LEMA'AN MISHPATEYCHA
יִשְׂמַח הַר צִיּוֹן תָּגֵלְנָה בְּנוֹת יְהוּדָה לְמַעַן מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ
KJ (48:11): Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.
BN: Let Mount Tsi'on be glad, let the daughters of Yehudah rejoice, on account of your judgments.
(Parallel this in modern terms as an exercise for the classroom. A speech attributed only to "the reigning monarch", but which speaks about the "sons and daughters of the Commonwealth". Which English monarch could it have been? The answer could include George V, but only in the last decade of his reign; Edward VIII, George VI and QE2 would all have phrased it this way. Until 1926, George would still have said "sons and daughters of the Empire". Simple change of just one word, but historically immense - and absolutely dateable.)
48:13 SOBU TSI'ON VE HAKIYPHU'AH SIPHRU MIGDALEYHA
KJ (48:12): Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.
BN: Walk about Tsi'on, go all around her; count how many towers she has.
HAKIYPHU'AH: The word HAKAFOT is in there; but is this a song to be sung while doing that, or merely a generalisation? It certainly reflects the arrival of the Ark at the time of David (2 Samuel 6 - see verse 16 especially). The whole Psalm is Yeru-Shala'im-focused, indeed very much a hymn of praise for the city (though it never names it as such, but only as Tsi'on, in the way that political London is always named Whitehall or Westminster)), so it makes perfect sense that this would be a pageant-hymn, and someone should set it to music again today, so that it can be sung on Yom Yeru-Shala'im, Jerusalem Day, which is always the 28th of Iyar.
The HAKAFOT, I failed to explain and have now given you a second link, are the circuits, usually seven, made, on various occasions: by the bride around the groom at their wedding, by Yehoshua's army around Yericho, on the evening of Simchat Torah... click here for the full account of the magical number seven. Moslem Haji's do exactly the same number of circumambulations around the Ka'aba (click here to witness it).
48:14 SHIYTU LIBCHEM LE CHEYLAH PASGU ARMENOTEYHA LEMA'AN TESAPRU LE DOR ACHARON
KJ (48:13): Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.
BN: Mark well her ramparts, walk by her palaces, so that you can describe them to the coming generation.
PASGU: Why is the Samech medugash?
LESAPER: why are "counting" and "telling" from the same root? There has to be a cultural explanation to that, in the same way that "bread" (Lechem) and "war" (Milchamah) derive from a single root.
I have never participated in Yom Yeru-Shalayim as a religious event, only as a secular political one; but I presume that this Psalm is now central to the liturgy of whatever religious celebrations, alongside 137. And if not, why not? It is also an essential part of the argument that anti-Zionism = anti-Semitism, like that equation or not.
48:15 KI ZEH ELOHIM ELOHEYNU OLAM VA ED HU YENAHAGENU AL MUT
KJ (48:14): For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.
BN: For these gods are our gods, for ever and ever; Elohim will guide us even unto death. {P}
OLAM VA ED: Unusual to find that phrase without its preposition: LE OLAM VA ED.
AL MUT: Where death does have a preposition. And also a conflict with OLAM VA ED, because there cannot be both death and eternality.
48:13 SOBU TSI'ON VE HAKIYPHU'AH SIPHRU MIGDALEYHA
סֹבּוּ צִיּוֹן וְהַקִּיפוּהָ סִפְרוּ מִגְדָּלֶיהָ
KJ (48:12): Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.
BN: Walk about Tsi'on, go all around her; count how many towers she has.
HAKIYPHU'AH: The word HAKAFOT is in there; but is this a song to be sung while doing that, or merely a generalisation? It certainly reflects the arrival of the Ark at the time of David (2 Samuel 6 - see verse 16 especially). The whole Psalm is Yeru-Shala'im-focused, indeed very much a hymn of praise for the city (though it never names it as such, but only as Tsi'on, in the way that political London is always named Whitehall or Westminster)), so it makes perfect sense that this would be a pageant-hymn, and someone should set it to music again today, so that it can be sung on Yom Yeru-Shala'im, Jerusalem Day, which is always the 28th of Iyar.
The HAKAFOT, I failed to explain and have now given you a second link, are the circuits, usually seven, made, on various occasions: by the bride around the groom at their wedding, by Yehoshua's army around Yericho, on the evening of Simchat Torah... click here for the full account of the magical number seven. Moslem Haji's do exactly the same number of circumambulations around the Ka'aba (click here to witness it).
48:14 SHIYTU LIBCHEM LE CHEYLAH PASGU ARMENOTEYHA LEMA'AN TESAPRU LE DOR ACHARON
שִׁיתוּ לִבְּכֶם לְחֵילָה פַּסְּגוּ אַרְמְנוֹתֶיהָ לְמַעַן תְּסַפְּרוּ לְדוֹר אַחֲרוֹן
KJ (48:13): Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.
BN: Mark well her ramparts, walk by her palaces, so that you can describe them to the coming generation.
PASGU: Why is the Samech medugash?
LESAPER: why are "counting" and "telling" from the same root? There has to be a cultural explanation to that, in the same way that "bread" (Lechem) and "war" (Milchamah) derive from a single root.
I have never participated in Yom Yeru-Shalayim as a religious event, only as a secular political one; but I presume that this Psalm is now central to the liturgy of whatever religious celebrations, alongside 137. And if not, why not? It is also an essential part of the argument that anti-Zionism = anti-Semitism, like that equation or not.
48:15 KI ZEH ELOHIM ELOHEYNU OLAM VA ED HU YENAHAGENU AL MUT
כִּי זֶה אֱלֹהִים אֱלֹהֵינוּ עוֹלָם וָעֶד הוּא יְנַהֲגֵנוּ עַל מוּת
KJ (48:14): For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.
BN: For these gods are our gods, for ever and ever; Elohim will guide us even unto death. {P}
OLAM VA ED: Unusual to find that phrase without its preposition: LE OLAM VA ED.
AL MUT: Where death does have a preposition. And also a conflict with OLAM VA ED, because there cannot be both death and eternality.
Psalms:
Bk 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
Bk 2: 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
Bk 3: 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
Bk 4: 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106
Bk 5: 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119a 119b 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132
133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150
Additional Psalms: 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 Samuel Chronicles
Essays: Intro - Music - Form & Language
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